The Regulation of Mitochondrial Homeostasis and Fat Metabolism in Cardiac Pathology: Current data suggest that substrate metabolism and mitochondrial fitness may play a central role in cardiac adaptations to pathological stressors. In this project we are evaluating how proteins that control mitochondrial homeostasis and metabolism are both regulated and how they modulate cardiac pathology including pressure overload and cardiac ischemia. The candidate proteins being currently being explored include Park2 and Pink1, proteins that appear to be involved in fat metabolism and mitochondrial quality control programs. As human subjects have mutations in both Park2 and Pink1 skin fibroblast samples will be acquired to compare to the metabolic pathways perturned in murine models.